Sunday, February 27, 2011

Hepatitis C; Weekend Update

Over at HCV Advocate the very handsome Mr. Alan Franciscus has updated the HCV Drug Pipeline.
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The HCV Advocate is looking for people who are interested in telling their stories.
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We are particularly interested in people who have been treated with the combination of pegylated interferon, ribavirin and an HCV protease inhibitor. If you are interested in writing about your experience to help others learn more about the treatment experience with the new triple combination, please drop me a note and I can send you the basic guidelines. Thank You, Alan.
Click here to email Alan
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.Greetings:
This was another incredible week with news about hepatitis C. The most important news item was the press release from Tibotec announcing the start of phase III studies of their once-a-day dose of TMC-435—an HCV protease inhibitor. Stay tuned for information about this drug – in addition to the once-a-day dosing the preliminary data from the phase II studies looks very promising.
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2. In addition to the Tibotec news you might want to check out what others are reading about hepatitis B and hepatitis C. The Top Ten English and Spanish fact sheets include Acetaminophen and Your Liver, Short Term Disability, and more. On the HBV Advocate the Top Ten includes How to Interpret Hepatitis B Antibody and Viral Tests, Hepatitis B Antigen and Antibody Tests and many more.
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3. Jacques Chambers monthly column is on “Taxation of Disability Benefits” – a must read if you are paying into disability and want to make sure you are reporting the income correctly.
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4. Centerforce in cooperation with San Quentin and prison peer educators have produced three videos titled “Mythbusters, which you can find on our Patient Education page under streaming videos.” Feel free to pass these around to other prisons that are educating peers about hepatitis C.
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5. Our HCSP Training Calendar has been updated through April 2011. If you are interested in attending one of our trainings the flyers will soon be available for the confirmed dates and locations so that you can find out more information on how to register.
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6. Lastly, the CDC in cooperation with AASLD is sponsoring a Hepatitis Single Topic Conference on June 4-5, 2011 in Atlanta, GA. The conference topic is “Chronic Viral Hepatitis Strategies to Improve Effectiveness of Screening and Treatment.”

Don’t forget to keep checking out our blog for more about the most recent news stories.
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The 21st Conference of the Asian Pacific Association for the Study of the Liver APASL Feb 17-20, 2011
Bangkok, Thailand
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Reported by Jules Levin;

(02/25/11)

Intensified peginterferon alfa-2a (40KD) dosing increases sustained virological response rates in genotype 1 hepatitis C patients with elevated low-density lipoprotein

(02/24/11)

Efficacy and Safety of Entecavir Treatment in a Heterogeneous CHB Population in a Real-Life Setting in China

Efficacy and Safety of Entecavir Versus Adefovir in Chronic Hepatitis B Patients with Evidence of Hepatic Decompensation: Week 96 Results

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(02/23/11)
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(02/21/11)
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(02/19/11)
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(02/18/11)



In The News
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The House, The Senate, The President, The Budget…This is Not a Love Story!
By Lyle Dennis, Cavarocci – Ruscio – Dennis Associates, LLC, Consultants to AASLD
Even in the best of times, the machinations of Washington DC can be confusing (bordering on unintelligible) to the casual observer. And these are not the best of times!
For AASLD members, there are aspects of the current budget debate in Washington that could be very beneficial to your research and your practice. But there are other factors that could have a deleterious impact. We will touch on some of these aspects here but, trust me when I tell you, this is the “Reader’s Digest” version because you are..
Continue Reading

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Best Weekend Reading
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Grand Rounds
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Grand Rounds is a weekly summary of the best health blog posts on the Internet. Each week a different blogger takes turns hosting Grand Rounds, and summarizing the best submissions for the week. The schedule for Grand Rounds is available at the Better Health Blog and at Blogborygmi.com. Both Dr. Val Jones and Dr. Nick Genes coordinate the schedule and identify appropriate hosts for Grand Rounds. Medscape.com features weekly interviews with new hosts of Grand Rounds. MedPage Today powers the Grand Rounds newsletter. .
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This weeks host...........
DrRich February 22nd, 2011 - 6:02 am
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Especially since the events of last week, it would be absurd for DrRich to think that everybody is out to get him. Still, it seems plain that, of late, not all individuals enjoy his efforts here at the Covert Rationing Blog.
Two years ago, for instance, DrRich was “invited” to testify as a witness before a federal grand jury in a matter involving one of his consulting clients. While under oath, DrRich was caused to understand that the Feds (at least certain members of the DOJ) are well aware of this blog, and of the general tenor of its content. The impression left by this experience makes DrRich doubt whether many of his fans come from that particular precinct.
Further, the CRB has been the victim of two targeted denial-of-service attacks just in the last several months. Perhaps this is a common experience for healthcare bloggers, but then again, perhaps not. Finally, there’s the fact that last May (some readers may recall) a nasty hacking exploit completely trashed the CRB at the server level, resulting in the loss of the first three years of DrRich’s endeavors here (which, some have said, is the greatest tragedy to befall posterity since the burning of the Library at Alexandria).
And so, Dear Reader, while DrRich is certainly happy to be hosting Grand Rounds for the fourth time, and is particularly delighted with the quality of postings which he has the honor of featuring this week, it occurs to him that hosting an event with such high (and well-deserved) visibility might draw certain “extra attention” here. So perhaps you had better read this quickly.
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We begin with HealthAGEnda, the John A. Hartford Foundation blog, which is posting a remarkable series of articles by Amy Berman, a senior program officer at that foundation, who has recently been diagnosed with an incurable form of breast cancer. Ms. Berman discusses very openly and frankly both the good and the bad aspects of the American healthcare system she is encountering as she deals with this likely fatal illness. In this post, the second in a series, Ms. Berman talks about her ordeal in confirming what she already strongly suspected was a very bad diagnosis, .....Continue Reading.......
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Healthy You
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If I had Video
Once a week this blog will post a video in a series deemed "If I Had."
These videos cover numerous disorders and diseases.
Physicians share what they would do "IF they Had..." the disease in the topic video.
These videos are available at Insider Medicine
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This weeks topic is; If I Had Psoriasis

In this video, Dr. Ronald Prussick from George Washington University discusses what he would do if he had psoriasis.


Arnon D. Cohena, b, Dahlia Weitzmanc, Shlomo Birkenfelda, Jacob Dreihera, b
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“This association is biologically plausible as systemic inflammation plays an important role in both psoriasis and hepatitis C,” they add.
The researchers compared the prevalence of viral hepatitis in 12,502 patients with psoriasis older than 20 years of age and 24,287 individuals without the condition matched for age and gender.
The prevalence of hepatitis C was 1.03% among patients with psoriasis compared with 0.56% among individuals without the condition.

Univariate analysis showed that the risk for hepatitis C was greater for psoriasis patients who were older (65–110 years) obese, and non-smokers, compared with others.
There was a significant interaction with smoking, although the strength of the association between psoriasis and hepatitis C did not differ significantly between smokers and non-smokers in multivariate analysis, with odds ratios of 2.22 for non-smokers and 1.93 for smokers.
Cohen et al also point out in the journal Dermatology that, although the recommended hepatitis C treatment interferon-α has previously been reported to trigger or exacerbate psoriasis, most hepatitis C patients in their study were not taking the drug, and the association with psoriasis was strongly evident among patients not taking it.

The prevalence of hepatitis B was also higher in patients with psoriasis than in controls, at 0.74% versus 0.56%. But in multivariate analysis the association was not significant, at an odds ratio of 1.22.

Cohen and team conclude that physicians who care for patients with psoriasis should “consider screening patients with psoriasis for hepatitis C.”

MedWire (www.medwire-news.md) is an independent clinical news service provided by Current Medicine Group, a trading division of Springer Healthcare Limited. © Springer Healthcare Ltd; 2010
Free abstract
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Off The Cuff
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ScienceDaily (Feb. 27, 2011) — Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT), an inflammatory disorder of the thyroid, is the most common cause of hypothyroidism, but a study has suggested that even when thyroid function is normal, HT may increase symptoms and decrease quality of life, as described in an article in Thyroid, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc..
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Understanding rheumatoid arthritis
Scientists at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden have taken a step closer to understanding rheumatoid arthritis after discovering a new mechanism behind the disease.
Researchers in Sweden have identified an enzyme that protects against inflammation and joint destruction. They made the discovery by blocking production of the enzyme GGTase-I in transgenic mice. They believe that this unexpected result could lead to the identification of new mechanisms that control the development of inflammatory disorders, as well as new therapies.
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Blog Updates
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